Thursday, February 14, 2013

This
report includes a typical example of a simple open rule that the House
Committee on Rules may report to govern House floor action on a bill that
is not otherwise privileged for consideration. This resolution has been
divided into five parts.

The first part of the rule makes the bill in order for floor consideration by
authorizing the Speaker to transform the House into the Committee of the
Whole to consider that bill. Without this authority, a motion for the same
purpose would not be in order; it would not be privileged to interrupt the
regular daily order of business on the House floor.

The second part waives a reading of the bill. It also governs general debate on
the bill by setting the amount of time for the debate, by dividing control
of this time, usually between the chairman and ranking minority member of
the committee that reported the bill, and by requiring that all general
debate be relevant to the subject of the bill.

The third part merely states that the bill shall be read for amendment and that
each Member may speak for five minutes on each amendment. By implication,
this part also means that the bill is to be read for amendment one section
at a time. Further, as each section is read, Members may offer to it
whatever amendments they wish, so long as those amendments satisfy the House’s
rules and precedents—for example, the requirement that amendments must be
germane. This part is what makes this special rule an open rule; it leaves
the bill fully open to amendments that otherwise would not be in order.

The fourth part provides for the Committee of the Whole, after disposing of the
last amendment, to transform itself back into the House, and report the
bill to the House with whatever amendments the Committee of the Whole
adopted. This provision eliminates the need for the House to vote on a
motion to achieve the same result. The Committee of the Whole does not vote on
the bill as a whole, and the committee may not actually amend the bill; it only
makes recommendations to the House about amendments.

The fifth and final part of the rule expedites final House passage of the bill
by precluding almost all debate in the House and all other actions except
those necessary for the House to vote on the amendments the Committee of
the Whole recommended and to dispose of one motion to recommit the bill to
a standing committee. That motion to recommit may include instructions containing
a proposed amendment to the bill.

Date of Report: January 31, 2013
Number of Pages: 3Order Number: 98-334Price: $19.95

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